Joe lost his Kata final to a European champion, nothing wrong with that… Paul had a tough first round draw, losing to the category champion and no repercharge. Harvey lost in the third round to one of the category finalists, just missing out on a medal place. Lewis met Wadokai England team mate Rebecca Boakes (Sakura Karate Academy) in the semi’s before going on to secure Gold.

Joe lost in the Kumite semi’s against the same lad who beat him in the Kata final, score was tied 4-4, but Joe lost out at Hantai (judges decision), but he must have impressed, because he was asked to join his fight team later on in the day – where they won Team Gold! Harvey unfortunately didn’t get through the rounds due to Hantai going against him. Paul didn’t drop any points on the way to his Kumite final, which he took Gold in.

Thanks to Graham for looking after the athletes and Rachel for the real-time updates whilst Amy and I were at our friends engagement party.

Over the weekend several members (Beth, Roy, Lewis, Carl) of Hartlepool Wadokai were able to train with Sugasawa Sensei, one of the original students of the late Wado Ryu founder Ohtsuka Sensei. The course was planned to only include a small number of students to ensure maximum opportunities for feedback from Sensei. I would like to particularly thank Mark Gallagher for arranging and hosting the course, and of course for the invite, it’s always nice to have (relatively) local events, especially with the Wado greats.

Sugasawa Sensei explains Wado principles in detail and links even the most basic of warm up exercises to the art. It’s also interesting to see the differences and similarities of Wado-Kai and Wado-Ryu, despite having the same origin. I always come away from training with him feeling humbled, but massively enthusiastic at how much there is still to learn and how we often just scratch the surface of Wado in our general training.

As always when training with Sugasawa Sensei, I had a few ‘lightbulb’ moments when elements of my own private training and study linked perfectly with what was discussed or demonstrated.

“Don’t waste your training” (Ohtsuka Sensei)

It was a shame that we couldn’t stay over for the full weekend course but our club has such a busy calendar that there are always clashes. It was good to have chance to grab a coffee and have a chat before we headed back to the far North. I think the Hartlepool Youth (Beth, Roy, Lewis) were dazed and confused about some of the Wado history discussion taking place, but I really could have stayed and chatted all night. Very interesting stuff.

Sensei Keith Walker also brought along some old UKKW newsletters, most were older than I am! There were some really interesting articles about ‘best practise’, correct warm-ups and possibly the first ever article on Karate fight analysis – exactly the same as what I wrote my Dissertation on, if only I’d known about the article then.

Tonight we were able to pass on the Wadokai England selections decisions to our athletes. They have been training hard in the dojo and at squad sessions in Leicester every month to earn a place on the England team competing at the Federation European Wadokai Championships in Budapest later in the year.

Joe F, Daniel and Lewis all competed at the European championships last year, and all brought back medals. This is the first time that Harvey, Joe H and Paul have gone for selections.

Results

Joe Flounders – Selected for Individual Kata & Individual Kumite

Lewis Muldown – Selected for Individual Kata & Individual Kumite

Daniel Spires – Call back for Kata in July

Joe Hind – Selected for Individual Kata

Harvey Kerridge – Selected for Individual Kumite & Call back for Kata in July

Paul White – Call back for Kata in July

Daniel Spires has moved up a category to the very competitive 14-15 years section, Paul White is also starting out his England squad challenge in this same section. They both work really hard in the dojo and compete regularly across the country. We’re therefore hopeful that Daniel will be successful in maintaining his squad place in July, and that Paul will be given the opportunity.

Joe Flounders has been selected for Kata this year, last year he was selected only for Kumite (European Silver medallist).

Lewis Muldown has maintained his squad places for Kata and Kumite. Lewis will also be competing at the Wado World Cup in Japan in August.

Harvey Kerridge and Joe Hind have both done very well to be selected to the Wadokai England Team on their first attempt.

Karate competition is a great way to challenge yourself and to test your training. It can also help keep children motivated in their training and give them something to aim for, helping to teach them valuable life skills such as good sportsmanship and determination, all whilst making new friends and stretching their abilities.

This competition is only for our club members and Little Ninjas to take part in. It’s therefore a perfect opportunity to see what Karate competitions are all about.

The event is very relaxed and the club instructors (who are also nationally qualified judges/referees) will be explaining the competition rules in detail so that students and parents know what is going on, what judges look for and how you can help your child progress in Karate competition. The younger students will also get to see some of the older ones in action too.

—The best way of learning how to do something is to just give it a go, if we always waited until we were experts before trying something, well, nothing would ever get done!—

The Little Ninjas will have their own Kick Master category, so they won’t be competing against the Karate kids.

All entries need to be submitted and paid for in advance of the competition, strictly no entries on the day.

Last year we held our first 5 day Karate Summer Camp. This was a week full of team building games and activities, and of course, a lot of Karate too. Below is the poster for this year’s camp, we only have a few spaces remaining, on a first come first served basis.

Some great performances and some medals too but I want to particularly highlight Paul White who was Northern Open Kata Champion. I thought it was telling of his character that he was more pleased about winning the bout with Niseishi Kata (which he’s been working his backside off for ages now) than he was at the fact that he was the category champion. Good lad.

Paul also got Bronze in Kumite too. I managed to catch his fight in the semi’s and it’s by far the best he’s fought yet. Very confident and strong, just outwitted at the last moment by the more experienced opponent. Keep up the hard work, it’s really paying off.

Our only Kata team entry, consisting of Harvey Kerridge, Daniel Spires and Joe Hind were Bronze medallists in a very very tough category.

Joe Hind had a very good weekend in the office, good performances at squad and he battled through a number of Kata rounds and just narrowly missed out on Bronze or potentially a place in the finals by just one flag. Frustrating after such strong performances all weekend but he managed to stay composed and fight his way to Bronze in Kumite on the afternoon. I probably owe him a High Five because he managed to polish off an entire man-size mixed grill and still have space for a giant ice cream on the Saturday night too.

Lewis Muldown had a mixed weekend with an exceptional Kushanku performance at selections on Saturday, unfortunately the same Kata didn’t get him past the second round in the competition. He lost to one of the medallists. Kumite was also frustrating with his opening bout being tied at 1-1 but losing on hantai (referee decision). Plenty to work on going forward to the World’s in August.

Joe Flounders had a good run out at squad selections but I was disappointed for him at the competition today. He was on my area for Kata early on the morning. I personally (I’m obviously biased as one of his instructors) thought his opening Kata performance was spot on, and by far the stronger Kata. Unfortunately he lost by one flag. That’s the way it goes sometimes. A few things to work on. I completely missed his Kumite.

Daniel Spires performed one of his best Niseishi Kata we’ve ever seen him do today, like, ever. Unfortunately his opponent was exceptional so he didn’t get through. The luck of the draw, but a cracking performance all the same.

Harvey Kerridge opening Kata performance wasn’t strong enough to secure the extra flag needed to progress. Needs to tighten up the punches slightly, and have a haircut to boot. Kumite I didn’t see but I’m told he narrowly lost out in the last few seconds of the match because of a cheeky head kick.

Good weekend. 420 mile round trip, not quite as far as our TKW friends from the South coast (maybe 450 miles-ish?) but still a fair run out.

Fair to say our squad guys have earned a few days break from training after some have had just 2 days off in the past 14 days!